Drum Rock Elementary School
Warwick
The SALT Visit Team Report
April 27, 2007
School Accountability for Learning and Teaching (SALT)
The school accountability program of the Rhode Island Department of Education
Rhode Island Board of Regents
for Elementary and Secondary Education
James A. DiPrete, Chairman
Patrick A. Guida, Vice Chairman
Colleen Callahan, Secretary
Amy Beretta
Robert Camara
Frank Caprio
Karin Forbes
Gary E. Grove
Maurice C. Paradis
Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Peter McWalters, Commissioner
The Board of Regents does not discriminate on the basis of age, color, sex, sexual orientation, race, religion, national origin, or disability.
For information about SALT, please contact:
Rick Richards
(401) 222-8401
Drum Rock Elementary School SALT Visit Team Report Page 23
1. introduction 1
The Purpose and Limits of This Report 1
Sources of Evidence 2
Using the Report 2
2. PROFILE OF Drum Rock Elementary School 4
3. PORTRAIT OF Drum Rock Elementary School AT THE TIME OF THE VISIT 5
4. FINDINGS ON STUDENT LEARNing 6
Conclusions 6
Important Thematic Findings in Student Learning 7
5. FINDINGS ON Teaching for Learning 8
Conclusions 8
Commendations for Drum Rock Elementary School 10
Recommendations for Drum Rock Elementary School 10
Commendations for the Warwick School Department 10
Recommendations for Warwick School Department 10
6. FINDINGS ON SCHOOL support for learning and teaching 11
Conclusions 11
Commendations for Drum Rock Elementary School 13
Recommendations for Drum Rock Elementary School 13
Commendations for Warwick School Department 13
Recommendations for Warwick School Department 13
7. Final Advice to DRUM ROCK ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 14
Endorsement of SALT Visit Team Report 15
report appendix 17
The Drum Rock Elementary School Improvement Team 24
Members of the SALT Visit Team 25
Code of Conduct for Members of Visit Team 26
Drum Rock Elementary School SALT Visit Team Report Page 23
1. introduction
The Purpose and Limits of This Report
This is the report of the SALT team that visited Drum Rock Elementary School from April 23- 27, 2007.
The SALT visit report makes every effort to provide your school with a valid, specific picture of how well your students are learning. The report also portrays how the teaching in your school affects learning and how the school supports learning and teaching. The purpose of developing this information is to help you make changes in teaching and the school that will improve the learning of your students. The report is valid because the team’s inquiry is governed by a protocol that is designed to make it possible for visit team members to make careful judgments using accurate evidence. The exercise of professional judgment makes the findings useful for school improvement because these judgments identify where the visit team thinks the school is doing well and where it is doing less well.
The major questions the team addressed were:
How well do students learn at Drum Rock Elementary School?
How well does the teaching at Drum Rock Elementary School affect learning?
How well does Drum Rock Elementary School support learning and teaching?
The following features of this visit are at the heart of the report:
Members of the visit team are primarily teachers and administrators from Rhode Island public schools. The majority of team members are teachers. The names and affiliations of the team members are listed at the end of the report.
The team sought to capture what makes this school work, or not work, as a public institution of learning. Each school is unique, and the team has tried to capture what makes Drum Rock Elementary School distinct.
The team did not compare this school to any other school.
When writing the report, the team deliberately chose words that it thought would best convey its message to the school, based on careful consideration of what it had learned about the school.
The team reached consensus on each conclusion, each recommendation and each commendation in this report.
The team made its judgment explicit.
This report reflects only the week in the life of the school that was observed and considered by this team. The report is not based on what the school plans to do in the future or on what it has done in the past.
The team closely followed a rigorous protocol of inquiry that is rooted in Practice-Based Inquiry®[1] (Catalpa Ltd.). The detailed Handbook for Chairs of the SALT School Visit, 2nd Edition describes the theoretical constructs behind the SALT visit and stipulates the many details of the visit procedures. The Handbook and other relevant documents are available at www.Catalpa.org. Contact Rick Richards at (401) 222-8401or for further information about the SALT visit protocol.
SALT visits undergo rigorous quality control. To gain the full advantages of a peer visiting system, RIDE did not participate in the editing of this SALT visit report. That was carried out by the team’s chair with the support of Catalpa. Ltd. Catalpa Ltd. monitors each visit and determines whether the report can be endorsed. Endorsement assures the reader that the team and the school followed the visit protocol. It also ensures that the conclusions and the report meet specified standards.
Sources of Evidence
The Sources of Evidence that this team used to support its conclusions are listed in the appendix.
The team spent a total of over 89.75 hours in direct classroom observation. Most of this time was spent observing complete lessons or classes. Almost every classroom was visited at least once, and almost every teacher was observed more than once. Team members had conversations with various teachers and staff for a total of 36.5 hours.
The full visit team built the conclusions, commendations and recommendations presented here through intense and thorough discussion. The team met for a total of 33 hours in team meetings spanning the five days of the visit. This time does not include the time the team spent in classrooms, with teachers, and in meetings with students, parents, and school and district administrators.
The team did agree by consensus that every conclusion in this report is:
Important enough to include in the report
Supported by the evidence the team gathered during the visit
Set in the present, and
Contains the judgment of the team
Using the Report
This report is designed to have value to all audiences concerned with how Drum Rock Elementary School can improve student learning. However, the most important audience is the school itself.
This report is a decisive component of the Rhode Island school accountability system. The Rhode Island Department of Education (RIDE) expects that the school improvement team of this school will consider this report carefully and use it to review its current action plans and write new action plans based on the information it contains.
How your school improvement team reads and considers the report is the critical first step. RIDE will provide a SALT Fellow to lead a follow-up session with the school improvement team to help start the process. With support from the Warwick School Improvement Coordinator and from SALT fellows, the school improvement team should carefully decide what changes it wants to make in learning, teaching and the school and how it can amend its School Improvement Plan to reflect these decisions.
The Warwick School District, RIDE and the public should consider what the report says or implies about how they can best support Drum Rock Elementary School as it works to strengthen its performance.
Any reader of this report should consider the report as a whole. A reader who only looks at recommendations misses important information.
2. PROFILE OF Drum Rock Elementary School
Drum Rock Elementary School, named after a Native American meeting place, is one of 20 elementary schools in Warwick, Rhode Island. Built in 1971, this school is part of the Toll Gate Complex and lies in close proximity to Toll Gate High School and Winman Jr. High School. When it originally opened, Drum Rock was an open-classroom school and housed students from grades four through six. In 1998, an addition was built and walls were added to divide the classroom space. Drum Rock presently serves students from kindergarten through grade 6.
Of the 305 students in attendance, 90% are white, 5% are Hispanic, 4% are Asian/Pacific Islander, and 1% is African American. Thirteen percent receive special education services, nine percent receive speech therapy services and sixteen percent receive reading services. Thirty percent of the students receive free or reduced price lunch. Drum Rock is a Title One School and is classified as high performing.
The professional staff consists of a principal, 14 classroom teachers, three special education teachers (two intensive and one supportive) and eight specialist teachers including an art teacher, a music teacher, two librarians, three physical education teachers and a science teacher. Two reading specialists/consultants with Reading Recovery training and a certified school nurse teacher complete the full-time staff. The part-time staff includes an occupational therapist, an instrumental music teacher, a school psychologist, a speech pathologist, an ALAP (Accelerated Learning Activities Program) teacher, a guidance counselor, a social worker and an adaptive physical education teacher. Additional part-time service providers include a reading/literacy coach and a math coach. The support staff includes two special education teacher assistants, a kindergarten teacher assistant, a school secretary, two custodians, five part-time lunch assistants and one kitchen server. Many volunteers also support students and teachers, as well as the school, including mentors from Metropolitan Life, parents, parent-tutors, retired teachers and high school students.
Drum Rock supports home-school-community partnerships in numerous ways. Monthly newsletters highlight math and reading tips. A Parent-Teacher Organization (PTO) supports the students’ learning needs by organizing a variety of activities and fundraisers. Community activities including Volunteers of Warwick Schools (VOWS), Mentoring, the Feinstein program, Junior Achievement and anti-bullying programs also support students academically and socially. This year Drum Rock is implementing a citizenship program that fosters responsibility, a sense of community and pride in the school daily routines.
Drum Rock School implements several programs and professional development offerings to help teachers deliver instruction and improve their practice. Teachers deliver literacy instruction through the district-wide balanced literacy model. A literacy coach works with them to implement their reading and writing strategies and offers them constructive criticism to increase the effectiveness of their present practices. Reading specialists work with at-risk students in grade one. Recent professional development activities include Connie Prevatte training, Empowering Writers, Kid Writing and Balanced Literacy workshops. To enhance their instruction, some teachers have also been trained in the SMART program that incorporates music, dance, theater, creative writing and the visual arts to address students’ learning styles.
3. PORTRAIT OF Drum Rock Elementary School AT THE TIME OF THE VISIT
“DRUM Rock”—once a Native American meeting place—continues today as a school where students from five socio-economically diverse Warwick neighborhoods learn and work together. Drum Rock is the only elementary school in Warwick that is not a neighborhood school. All students ride the bus to school. Yet after they arrive, they form a viable, cohesive family-like community that walks to the ever-strengthening beat of a steady drum.
Rebounding from contract discord and five interim principals during the last two years, a new competent administrator leads the school. He provides the consistency, structure and discipline that was sorely lacking during the past tumultuous time. The cadre of dedicated teachers can now focus on learning and teaching without having to bear the yoke of additional administrative duties. These teachers value their students and believe that every student can learn. Active learning pervades the school as masterful teachers engage students in meaningful work. Student learning is their focus.
Energized, conscientious students are the pulse of this school. Their voices fill the classrooms with resounding questions, “I wonder…,” “What if …?” and “How can I help?” Special education students are naturally assimilated into general classroom instruction when appropriate. Students treat one another with respect because they, too, are respected and their needs are well-met. It is easy to see why Drum Rock teachers never leave.
Drum Rock School is bursting at the seams. Classroom space is at a premium. Itinerants travel from classroom to classroom with carts overflowing with materials. Reading teachers instruct students in the hallways. The library simultaneously serves as a classroom and a well-traveled passageway.
Issues present on-going challenges—like how to use school personnel more efficiently, how to address the lack of consistent common planning time and how to use instruction time more effectively. Nevertheless, everyone continues to work to keep Drum Rock a high-performing school.
4. FINDINGS ON STUDENT LEARNing
Conclusions
Students at Drum Rock School have mastered important reading skills. This solid foundation strengthens their confidence as readers and leads them to say that they love to read. Their excellent understanding of phonics helps them successfully decode words, see patterns and apply those patterns to an increasingly difficult vocabulary. During lively discussions, students emulate the vocabulary of their teachers and use rich, sophisticated words to describe plot problems, setting and character traits. Most can readily cite and successfully use a variety of strategies to help them read. Students throughout the school delve into a variety of genres using sticky notes and graphic organizers to make predictions and personal connections and to ask “I wonder” questions. They say these notes help them keep track of the story in their heads as well as find and remember critical information, hence increasing their comprehension of text. They further deepen their understanding by writing about what they read and making personal connections to their own lives and to the world around them. When answering questions, they skillfully cite evidence from the text to support their opinions. Students report that reading is one way to improve their writing because it provides them with ideas of what to write about and shows them different writing styles. Their success in reading is enhanced by considerable practice and by knowing how to select books that match their skills and interests. Even the less successful readers believe they read well and know what they need to do to improve. Although they are learning how to think critically, they continue to need assistance and reinforcement of their basic reading skills. This evidence supports the 2006 New England Common Assessment Program results which show that 67percent of the students were at or above proficiency. (following students, observing classes, talking with students and teachers, reviewing school improvement plan, reviewing completed and ongoing student work, discussing student work with teachers, reviewing classroom assessments, Drum Rock self-study.)